Fundraising in Lockdown by Naomi Chapman

NAO MI CHAP MAN , Development Associate, Cause4

The Covid-19 Pandemic has led to mass closure of arts venues, and the loss of a significant income source for the sector. Can we use virtual tools or events to create compelling fundraising events for the sector in a time of crisis?

The cultural sector relies on people coming together to make, experience, and fundraise for culture. In 2016/17, across the then Arts Council England National Portfolio (NPO s), an average of 35.6% of income was earned, with the vast majority of this coming from core activity, including ticket sales.

In 2016/17, NPO s had on average 12 weeks’ worth of unrestricted, undesignated funds. If the closures that are in place across the cultural industry due to CO VID -19 are going to last for at least 12 weeks, we need to get creative about how we can fundraise to ensure the sustainability of individual organisations and the sector.

We’ve been looking to find examples of the best virtual fundraising events that we’ve seen, and tips for how you might adapt these for your organisation. Remember if arts organisations can translate the value of their events online and bring benefits to

people in a new format, then there is no reason that donors won’t want to support your organisation through this challenging time.

Heritage & Visual Arts The nation’s museums and galleries are immensely valuable, with extensive collections, expertise and a strong track record of education and outreach programmes. These are all assets that can be used for online fundraising events.

Although the British Museum’s virtual collection has been live since 2015, the week after its physical closing due to Covid-19 saw the website traffic double, reaching close to a million visitors. A similar boost is reported by the National Gallery, which saw a 20% increase in the number of website visitors in the week after it closed.

National Gallery

If you have the assets to be able to launch virtual collections – on any scale – then do. For the release of its online exhibition, the God’s House Tower in Southampton promoted the virtual launch for the time the physical launch was planned, announcing the release online. Organisations could extend this sort of experience by inviting supporters to enter a digital ‘private view’, including an introduction by a curator. To maximise income generation, accompanying these parts of your website with a careful fundraising ask, and inviting site visitors to visit in person once normality is restored are all parts of good process.

As schools close, parents who turn to homeschooling will be grateful for resources that allow exciting educational experiences from home, such as the Science Museum’s extensive archive of digital learning resources, classified by age-group. Encourage your Learning and Outreach team to generate digital versions of school activities that are usually run. These could be released at particular times of day – a history lesson at 11am, for example – and concluded with a short fundraising ask for your organisation.

DanceSyndrome

Theatres Theatres, production companies and performers across the UK are releasing footage of performances online, encouraging donations to theatres or charities in lieu of a ticket price. An early example of this was the release of footage of Eugenius! at The Other Palace, in support of Acting for Others, a charity that supports creatives in times of difficulty. Eugenius! was a strong example of good practice, with the production company counting down to the ‘performance’ at 7pm on a Friday evening, encouraging virtual viewing parties and live tweeting as donations came in. At the time of writing, the release of Eugenius! had raised over £13,500, more than three times the original fundraising target.

If you don’t have footage available, think about the content that your network of employees or freelancers might be able to create. For example, the King’s Head Theatre is releasing daily #KHTO nline videos sharing expertise and training, such as a 30-minute producing masterclass with leading West End producer James Seabright, who is a trustee of the theatre.

King’s Head Theatre

Music Musicians have come out in support of charities since the start of the pandemic. Billboard is livestreaming performances from musicians’ homes, with each artist donating proceeds to a charity of their choice. Think through your networks and whether there is anyone who could put on a fundraising performance from home for you.

Without a celebrity ambassador to do this, get creative with a Peer to Peer challenge. Musical theatre composers Lin Manuel Miranda and Andrew Lloyd Webber went viral this week in a charity piano play off, challenging each other whilst fundraising for Broadway Cares. Taking inspiration from this, consider designing a music-based challenge that supporters can complete and accompany with a small donation, whilst challenging their friends to do the same.

Dance A joyous example of virtual fundraising events comes from Dance Syndrome, a Lancashire-based dance charity that delivers inclusive dance classes across a range of styles. To combat loneliness and keep people active amid the pandemic, the charity is offering free online dance classes. Dance Syndrome suggests a donation of £3: the price of admission to an in-person class. As a virtual fundraising event, there is a lot to love about this: it offers something of real value to people, it utilises existing expertise, and it is in line with both its charitable objects and the current context.

Hopefully, this round-up has prompted ideas for how you could use virtual events to fundraise in the coming months. Again, remember to think carefully about what you have that is valuable: is it staff expertise, workshop designs, archive footage, collections, networks, or something else entirely? You should centre fundraising asks around donating something of virtual value now, and to explore the future of this valuable service for the years to come. The impact of the arts will endure long after Covid-19 and this enforced break is a chance to try some things, at low cost and imperfectly, to see what chimes.

Benjamin Franklin said ‘out of adversity comes opportunity’, by trying some things we have a change to engage differently with our audiences and donors to help drive community, collaboration, and connection for when our doors can reopen.